Bob Dylan sells songwriting catalogue to Universal Music

NEW YORK • In what may be the biggest acquisition ever of the music publishing rights of a single songwriter, Universal Music Publishing Group announced on Monday that it had signed a landmark deal to purchase Bob Dylan's entire songwriting catalogue - including world-changing classics like Blowin' In The Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin' and Like A Rolling Stone.

The deal, which covers the American singer-songwriter's entire career, from his earliest tunes to his latest album, Rough And Rowdy Ways, was struck directly with Dylan, 79, who has long controlled the vast majority of his own songwriting copyrights.

The price was not disclosed but is estimated at more than US$300 million (S$401 million).

"It's no secret that the art of songwriting is the fundamental key to all great music nor is it a secret that Bob is one of the very greatest practitioners of that art," said Mr Lucian Grainge, chief executive of the Universal Music Group.

The deal is the latest and most high-profile in this year's buzzing market for music catalogues, as artists both young and old have sold their songs, while publishers and investors have raised billions of dollars from both public and private sources to persuade writers to part with their creations.

Dylan's catalogue, though, is a special gem, revered in a way that perhaps no other popular musician has achieved.

His trove of songs has reshaped folk, rock and pop, and he maintains an almost mythic status as the bard of the current age.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

Yet to a degree that still surprises and shocks his audience, Dylan has long been aggressive about marketing his music, including pursuing licensing deals to place his songs in television commercials.

Since Universal now controls his work, he will no longer have veto power over how his songs will be used.

Still, Universal insisted it would be tasteful in its use of his work.​

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Dylan's deal includes 100 per cent of his rights for all the songs of his catalogue, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of each song's copyright.

In exchange for its payment to Dylan, Universal, a division of French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.

The deal includes more than 600 songs spread across a number of publishing companies that Dylan has had over the years.

With the exception of his original Leeds Music deal - which included seven songs, among them Song For Woody and Talkin' New York - he eventually took full control of all his copyrights from those catalogues. Leeds was sold in 1964 to MCA, which became Universal.

But the agreement does not include any of Dylan's unreleased songs. It also does not cover any work he writes in the future.

NYTIMES